Battling Energy Waste in Hot, Rich Cities

European Pressphoto Agency Hong Kong enveloped in smog in March last year. Bettina Wassene r, who is based in Hong Kong for the International Herald Tribune, has filed a Green column for The Times exploring why there is so much energy waste there and in other advanced cities. One reason is that energy costs are a tiny fraction of the price of owning expensive real estate, so why not have the windows open while the air conditioning is blasting. Here’s a snippet: In Hong Kong, as in much of the rest of the world right now, a debate is raging about how best to generate the additional electricity that is needed to power economic growth and development. Do we use more oil and coal, which pollute and are ultimately finite? Or nuclear energy, which comes with safety concerns, and is being phased out entirely in Germany? Or renewable energies like solar power, which many nations a...